Category Archives: Adobe

I love my GoPro camera. It takes amazing pictures and captures incredible videos, and can get into some extreme situations that other cameras probably would not survive – no wonder it is one of the best selling cameras in the world. I also love the fisheye lens, but there are times when the fisheye effect is too much. We’ve had lens correction in Photoshop and Lightroom for a while, optics compensation in After Effects, but now it is easier than ever to non-destructively remove the fisheye effect from GoPro video footage directly inside of Adobe Premiere Pro. Check out the video below to see it in action.

Applying lens correction (or lens distortion removal) is incredibly easy. There are new effects presets in the effects panel that enable video editors to simply drag an effect onto their clip to have the lens correction applied. Just select the preset for the resolution and field of view (FOV) that match what you used to capture your footage, and drag it right onto your clip. They under Presets -> Lens Distortion Removal -> GoPro. For those fellow quadcopter enthusiasts, you may also notice some presets for the DJI Vision cameras!

GoPro Lens Distortion Presets

Once you’ve applied the preset to your footage, you can tweak it as you like to customize the amount of correction. You can under-correct, over-correct, or change the center/focal point of the correction. I normally tend to leave it with the default settings…

GoPro Lens Distortion Effect Controls

Once you’ve applied the correct preset for your footage, you’ll be able to see that the lens distortion has been removed. The straight lines will now appear straight, and everything will line up to scale.

Ever since Photoshop introduced 3D printer support I’ve been hooked on 3D printing. Some of my recent experiments included text extrusions, phone cases, and a dragon. While these are cool, I still wanted to kick it up a notch or two. Those models were all printed using plastic materials, and I’ve been wanting to try out a few other other materials, in particular metal. So in honor of Photoshop World coming up next week, I decided to design and print a Photoshop themed belt buckle in raw stainless steel, and it turned out AMAZING! Far better than I had hoped.

I chose stainless steel because I wanted a minimalistic/industrial look for the belt buckle. The process was actually quite easy. I took a vector Photoshop logo in Illustrator, copied the PS and the square border, and pasted it into Photoshop. Then I extruded it into a 3D object, added a flattened cube on the back, and used cylinder and sphere primitives to create the belt loop and pin. Seriously, this was the complete process. I’m not over-simplifying things. Check out the video below to see a timelapse recreating this model entirely in Photoshop.

When you are creating 3D models, just be sure to pay attention to the object’s physical dimensions in the 3D Properties Coordinates panel. Set the units to a physical unit of measurement (I chose Centimeters), and create your objects using the exact physical print size. Also, it’s important to know the physical characteristics and limitations of your target materials, including minimum wall thickness, minimum wire thickness, embossing depth, clearance, etc… Design within these parameters for best results.

3D Properties – Coordinates

Once you’re ready to print, just select your print target and material in the 3D Print settings panel. Then send it to print using the 3D->3D Print… menu. If you’re using the Shapeways 3D printing service you’ll then be redirected to upload your model and complete the print order.

3D Print Properties

A few days later, your print will arrive in your mailbox. However, do not forget to double check your print volume/dimensions after you’ve uploaded your STL to Shapeways. I noticed that some of the minimum thickness checks made the pin too thick, so I generated the STL file for a plastic material, then chose the metal material when actually ordering the print through Shapeways.

I’m really happy with how this turned out, and yes, I’m wearing this belt buckle right now.

All of this was created in it’s entirety using Creative Cloud. Join now if you haven’t already become a member! If you’re going to be at Photoshop World next week in Atlanta, stop by to check it out and learn more!

3D printing has the potential to completely change how people create physical objects. It enables faster prototyping and iteration in design and manufacturing, enables new forms of artistry and jewelry, and even has applications in medicine. If you haven’t checked out 3D printing yet, you really should do yourself a favor and give it a few minutes of your time.

My second article on aerial imaging with a remote controlled helicopter is now live in the March 2014 issue of Adobe Inspire! The first article focused on aerial videography and Adobe video tools. This time it’s all about aerial photography with a GoPro camera and DJI Phantom (and how to bring these images to life with Photoshop and Lightroom).

First, you can make so-so video look great with a few simple color correction techniques. Second, a video is only as good as its audio, so you need solid audio to keep viewers engaged. Hopefully this post helps you improve your videos with simple steps on both of these topics.

To give you an idea what I’m talking about, check out this before and after video. It’s the exact same clip played twice. The first run through is just the raw video straight from the camera and mic. Colors don’t “pop”, it’s a little grainy, and the audio is very quiet. The second run through has color correction applied to enhance the visuals, and also has processed audio to enhance tone, increase volume, and clean up artifacts.

Let’s first look at color correction. Below you can see a “before” and “after” still showing the effects of color correction. The background is darker and has less grain, there is more contrast, and the colors are warmer.

Before and After – Color Correction

The visual treatment was achieved using two simple effects in Adobe Premiere Pro. First I used the Fast Color Corrector to adjust the input levels. By bringing up the black and gray input levels, the background became darker, and it reduced grain in the darker areas. Then, I applied the “Warm Overall” Lumetri effect to make the video feel warmer – this enhances the reds to add warmth to the image.

You can get by with a mediocre video with good audio, but nobody wants to sit through a nice looking video with terrible audio. Here are three simple tips for Adobe Audition to help improve your audio, and hopefully keep viewers engaged.

In this case, I thought the audio was too quiet and could be difficult to understand. My goal was to enhance audio volume and dynamics to make this easier to hear.

I first used Dynamics Processing to create a noise gate. This process removes quiet sounds from the audio, leaving us with the louder sounds, and generally cleaner audio. You could also use Noise Reduction or the Sound Remover effects… the effect that works best will depend on your audio source.

Dynamics Processing (Noise Gate) in Adobe Audition

Next I used the 10-band graphic equalizer to enhance sounds in specific frequency ranges. I brought up mid-range sounds to give more depth to the audio track.

10 Band EQ in Adobe Audition

Finally, I used the Multiband Compressor to enhance the dynamic range of the audio. Quieter sounds were brought up and louder sounds were brought down to create more level audio that is easier to hear and understand. However, be careful not to make your audio too loud when using the compressor! If you’ve ever been watching TV and the advertisements practically blow out your eardrums, this is because of overly compressed audio.

Multi-band Compressor in Adobe Audition

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